Door to door sales management tool

ABSTRACT

A door to door sales management tool utilizes a mobile device configured to request data from a database regarding a neighborhood within proximity of that sale. The mobile device sends results back to the database, wherein the results are flagged as verified. A simplified prequalification system is shown where a salesperson may select a house on a map to run a prequalification on the residents expected occupants of the selected house.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/026,468 filed on Feb. 14, 2011, entitled “DOOR TO DOOR SALESMANAGEMENT TOOL”, which application claims the benefit of and priorityto, U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/320,641, filed on Apr. 2,2010, entitled “SALES MANAGEMENT TOOL”. All of the aforementionedapplications are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. the Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to door to door sales management. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to sales prediction,qualification and productivity through sales database enrichment in doorto door sales management.

2. The Relevant Technology

Door to door sales responsibilities are generally separated intogeographic regions. Once fully subdivided, each geographical area isgiven to a sales team. The sales team then gives each salesperson astreet or set of streets to work until complete. As there are a finitenumber of doors, it becomes important to contact as many of the peopleas possible without becoming a nuisance. Therefore it is important formanagement to know which houses have been contacted and which have not.

Door to door salespeople, however, have a more immediate motivation tosell. Paperwork is often seen as “in the way” or unimportant comparedwith moving along to the next door. After all, they will likely receivea new neighborhood to work on after this one has been finished. There islittle motivation to provide records that may help the next salespersonthrough the current neighborhood.

The door to door sales process can be filled with frustrations. Apotential customer may fail the credit check at the end of the salescall. Another potential customer may still be under a contract withanother company. The current street may have been contacted in the lastfew months. Most of these frustrations equate with time wasted on poorsales prospects.

Frequently, door to door salespeople use paper to track their contacts.However, paper records are often difficult to read, difficult to review,time consuming to procure, and even contain misstatements. Even whenmanagement requires use of the paper records, the records may be filledout at the end of the day with guesses of what happened earlier thatmorning. The value of the paperwork is not directly related to themotivation of the door to door salesperson's next sale and therefore isgiven less attention than management would like.

Even with a good paper listing, management must take individualsalesperson daily records and compile them into useful information. Notonly is this time intensive work, but each salesperson's report islikely to be subjective at best, and fabricated at worst, such that thereport must be interpreted by the person compiling the records. Thistime and fabrication barrier is likely the same barrier to having asalesperson review neighborhood records before selling in thatneighborhood.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Sales management tools and related methods are disclosed which improvethe door to door selling process and/or the process of collectinginformation for future attempts.

In some embodiments, a salesperson can access information on the nexthousehold that may provide a selling advantage. Similarly, each accessof information for a household may cause the result of each contact tobe accurately reported. This may allow a greater percentage of thehouseholds to be contacted.

In some embodiments, a salesperson using the disclosed tools and relatedmethods may notice other needs of the household and generate a lead to apartner based on those needs.

A sales database can also be updated and marked as field verified bysales people in the field, whom have an interest in correct results.

In some embodiments, a sales person is given a graphical overview of theneighborhood on a remote device that may include predictive analysis.According to data retrieved by the system, some houses may be starred asbeing more likely to purchase. Other houses may be marked as beingcurrent and former customers. Some houses may be marked as undercontract with a competitor. Other houses may be marked as previouslycontacted. Each of these may be identified through markings includingcolor, shapes or size.

In some embodiments, a remote device may enable a salesperson to selecta house on a map, run a credit pre-qualification on the inhabitants fromdata associated with the address, bill a credit card, schedule aninstallation appointment and close a sale based on an address obtainedfrom selecting a house on a map.

In some embodiments, a sales manager is given a dashboard ofinformation. The sales manager may be able to view areas where sales aresignificant and redeploy the sales force to those areas. Similarly, thesales manager may be able to track salespersons efforts in realtime ornear-realtime. Thus, a struggling salesperson may be differentiated froma poor neighborhood based on the number of doors visited. By usingtracking, the sales manager may have confidence that the sales persondid approach each of the doors suggested—as the location based servicesmakes it more difficult for a salesperson to lie about door attempts.

These and other aspects of embodiments of sales management tools andrelated methods are realized in a sales management tool as shown anddescribed in the following figures and related description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments are shown and described in reference to the numbereddrawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a diagram of one embodiment of a sales management tool inuse;

FIG. 2 shows a communication diagram of one embodiment of a salesmanagement tool in use;

FIG. 3 shows a functional diagram of external connectors between adatabase server and external services;

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of a sales process using a sales managementtool;

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of another embodiment of a sales process usinga sales management tool;

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of third embodiment of a sales process using asales management tool;

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of an embodiment of a management subsystem;

FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of a database enrichment subsystem;

FIG. 9 shows a screenshot of a login screen of a sales management tool;

FIG. 10 shows a screenshot of a map screen of a sales management tool;

FIG. 11 shows a screenshot of a street sheet screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 12 shows a screenshot of a rejection screen of a sales managementtool;

FIG. 13 shows a screenshot of a street sheet screen with a contactresult of a sales management tool;

FIG. 14 shows a screenshot of a nearby accounts screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 15 shows a screenshot of a nearby accounts map screen of a salesmanagement

FIG. 16 shows a screenshot of a home information screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 17 shows a screenshot of a homeowner selection screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 18 shows a screenshot of a credit pre-qualification screen of asales management tool;

FIG. 19 shows a screenshot of a validation screen of a sales managementtool;

FIG. 20 shows a screenshot of a deal closing screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 21 shows a screenshot of a payment selection screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 22 shows a screenshot of a activation fee selection screen of asales management tool;

FIG. 23 shows a screenshot of a points selection screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 24 shows a screenshot of a notes screen of a sales management tool;

FIG. 25 shows a screenshot of a street sheet screen with multipleresults of a sales management tool;

FIG. 26 shows a screenshot of a information popup screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 27 shows a screenshot of a location finding map screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 28 shows a screens hot of a overall report screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 29 shows a screenshot of a territory report screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 30 shows a screenshot of a status request report screen of a salesmanagement tool;

FIG. 31 shows a screenshot of a status of not interested report screenof a sales management tool; and

FIG. 32 shows a screenshot of a date report screen of a sales managementtool.

It will be appreciated that the drawings are illustrative arid notlimiting of the scope of the invention which is defined by the appendedclaims. The embodiments shown accomplish various aspects and objects. Itis appreciated that it is not possible to clearly show each element andaspect of all possible embodiments in a single figure, and as such,multiple figures are presented to separately illustrate various detailsof individual embodiments of sales management tools and related methodsof use in greater clarity. Similarly, not every embodiment needaccomplish all ad vantages or include each detail of the variousembodiments contemplated and disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Sales management tools and related methods of use will now be discussedin reference to the Figures provided. The drawings and descriptions areexemplary of various embodiments and are not intended to narrow thescope of the appended claims. While the application below discussessales tools in terms of a residential neighborhood, it is understoodthat sales tools may be equally applicable in other situations,including commercial, non-profit and emergency response aspects.

Turning now to FIG. 1, a diagram of the sales management tool 10 in useis shown. Central service 18 provides information (as shown by line 12)about a next sales call to salesperson 20 and surveys salesperson abouthomes 30 and 32 and the visit(s) (as shown by line 14). The informationis routed to the appropriate storage and/or action queue (as shown bylines 16′, 16″ and 16′″). The new data is also marked as field verified,such that the system may track data freshness and accuracy.

In one embodiment, salesperson 20 approaches home 30 in a neighborhood.Through mobile device 22, the salesperson 20 views a map of the areawhich may rate houses by potential for a sale. The salesman may tap on ahome on the map and thereby request information about home 30 and itsexpected occupants from central service 18. Central service 18 retrievesinformation about home 30 and its expected occupants and returns it tosalesperson 20. During the visit to home 30 and the residents within,salesperson 20 may pre-qualify the residents using the information aboutthe home 30 and its occupants retrieved earlier, receive supporting datasuch as other current accounts for reference, record inspection datarelated to ancillary products and services that may be appropriate tooffer the residents of home 30, or even close the sale—all from theirmobile device 22. After the visit is almost complete or complete,salesperson 20 may send the collected data to central service 18. Ifsalesperson 20 was successful, an entity, such as call center 40, maymake appropriate action, such as a communication (as shown by line 15)to follow up on the sale. If ancillary products or services wereavailable for specific offer by salesperson 20, the results of theoffers may be returned to central service 18 as well.

The inspection, while tangential to the main sales call, may have valueexternal to the company in terms of leads, partner sales, aggregate dataor other external information need. This information may include suchthings as business leads 42, such as evidence of broken windshield 50 ona car 52 for a windshield repair company. The information may includedemographic information stored in database 44, which may be useful to amarketing company. The information may also include antenna informationsuch that salesperson 20 may offer a special on satellite TV on behalfof a partner based on the lack of a satellite antenna on home 30. Thus,the inspections may include information that is useful to parties thatpartner with the sales company or may be valuable in other ways. Assalesperson 20 may benefit from the value of the data, it is in his bestinterest to give good information.

Salesperson's 20 mobile device 22 software may be set up such that oncethe request for information about home 30 has been made, the softwaremay not continue further until a report has been filled out. The reportmay include an inspection report, the result of the sale, and other dataobservable by the salesperson. Once complete, the software may allow thenext home report to be accessed and salesperson 20 may be credited withthe contact and any accompanying sale. The software may also uselocation finding, such as a GPS, to aid in determining the next addressfor the report request.

The sales management tool may save a salesperson effort and time. Forinstance, many companies require that a potential customer bepre-qualified in the form of a credit score, such as a FICO® score byFair Isaac Corporation. In one embodiment, the salesperson 20 mayconfirm the identity of the people living in the home corresponds to thedata retrieved from the database and request a pre-qualification. Infact, the pre-qualification may simply require selecting a house on amap and confirming the resident's name. If the pre-qualification fails,the salesperson may quickly end the sales call and move on to the nexthome. If the pre-qualification passes, the salesperson 20 may place moreeffort into the sales call, knowing that the sale may be closed. Inanother embodiment, the sales person is given a list of nearby currentaccounts. The sales person may then use the information in their salespitch to help reduce the customer's resistance to purchase. Thus, byreducing the amount of data input, providing more information to thesalesperson 20 earlier in the sales process, the sales management toolbecomes valuable to the salesperson 20.

By providing useful information and tools to the salesperson 20, thesalesperson has an interest in pulling the next home report. Byrequiring a survey that may lead to rewards (such as a list of housesrecently contacted) and allow access to his next report, the salesperson20 will likely have an interest in filling out a correct report.Similarly, the salesperson 20 will likely put in the correct informationbecause he depends on the same database information to make his salescalls and to receive credit for visits. As result of the self-interestof the salesperson 20, the data sent by the salesperson is fresh andobserved and will be marked as field verified.

Once the sales call data is stored in central service 18, the data maybe routed to areas based on its use. Successful sales data may be routedto call center 40, where the salesperson 20 or resident of the home willmake preparations to finalize the sale, if more action is required.Potential leads 42 may be sorted and sent to appropriate partners oraggregated for later use.

Turning now to FIG. 2, a communication diagram of sales management tool10 is shown. Mobile device 22 communicates with cell tower 62 or otherwireless access point 64 to access the Internet 66. The communicationmay then be routed to central service 18. In a similar way, centralservice 18 may communicate back to mobile device 22.

Central service 18 and mobile device 22 may also communicate with othersystems to store and utilize the sales data. Call center 40 may monitorcentral service 18, receive messages about successful sales and organizecall-backs to finalize the sale. Referral and lead generation data maybe sent to other business servers 70 for their use. Management system 72may monitor these transactions, system status of the various devices,status of the salespeople and run reports based on data stored in thecentral service 18.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a functional diagram of external connectorsbetween server 80 and external services is shown. In one embodimentserver 80 may include business logic that ties data requests and datareports to databases 82 and a sales engine 83. As the data need andprotocols of the communication differs according to the purpose of thecommunication, the business logic connector may be tailored to eachapplication.

Sales engine 83 may include logic to aid the success of salespeople andsales management. In one embodiment, the sales engine 83 may performpredictive analysis. The predictive analysis may process information inthe databases 82 to discover commonalities between successful sales andunsuccessful sales. The system may identify specific characteristics,such as a section of a street that is more receptive to the sales thanother customers (perhaps because the neighbors have discussed security).These potential sales may then be flagged and stored for salespeople inthe area, including the commonality identified by the engine.

In other embodiments, the sales engine 83 may include external datasources in its decision making process. For instance, the sales enginemay be connected to a data warehouse 85 (not shown) and perform atrending analysis over time. The trending analysis may show whichneighborhoods are increasing security awareness and which neighborhoodsare decreasing awareness, along with an expected date of best sales. Inother embodiments, the sales engine may retrieve and digest public orprivate data. In one embodiment the sales engine uses public safetyinformation, such as recent crime reports. Neighborhoods and streets maybe targeted that have recently felt the effects of crime.

In other embodiments, the sales engine 83 may aid the sales manager inachieving higher sales. The sales engine 83 may match sales people withneighborhoods. In one embodiment, the sales engine may use past salesperson successes and compare it with neighborhood socioeconomic factors.The engine may then suggest placement of the sales person withneighborhoods that appear the most comfortable and successful for thatsales person, i.e. a member of a particular ethnicity in a neighborhoodwith a high concentration of that ethnicity, or a female inneighborhoods having demographics where female sales personnel haveoutsold their male counterparts.

In another aspect of the invention, the sales engine 83 may suggestneighborhoods based on past number of people home on that day of theweek (or warn a sales manager of potential for no one to be home). Forinstance, the sales engine 83 may warn that an Irish neighborhood maynot have the most effective sales on S1. Patrick's Day based on pastsales history.

While the sales engine 83 has been discussed as one object, it should benoted that the sales engine may be split into multiple, specific purposeengines.

As Sales person connector 90 has a purpose to connect the databaserequests and reports from salespeople to the databases and flag theresults as field verified. These requests and reports may be fromdevices that include mobile devices 22, computers, laptops 91 and otherportable devices that are accessible to salespeople in the field.Further details may be seen in FIGS. 4 and 5 and their correspondingdescriptions.

Sales manager connector 92 has a purpose to allow a sales manager tomanage her sales force. The requests and reports are likely to be fromsimilar machines as the sales force. Further details may be seen in FIG.6 and its corresponding description.

Referral connector 94 has a purpose to contact partners with sales andsales opportunities. This may be in the form of direct database server80 to partner server 95 communication, emails, text messages, or anaggregation of information which is then transmitted to the partner.Immediate communication may be more appropriate when a salesperson hasconvinced the resident of the home to purchase a partner's product orservices. Less immediate communication may be more appropriate when theinformation is more related to leads or demographics. Thus, the referralconnector 94 may include logic to determine the immediacy of dispatchingfield verified data to partners.

Call center connector 96 has a purpose to route field verified data to acall center shortly after being sent by a salesperson. In oneembodiment, a salesperson will make the sale to the resident of the homeand then send the relevant data to the sales person connector 90. As thenew data becomes available, the data may be routed through the callcenter connector to the call center servers 97. The new customer orsalesperson may then be called, if further action is required. As thecall center already has the data from the salesperson, the call may becompleted more efficiently and quickly.

External request connector 99 has a purpose of retrieving and loadingexternal data into the database server. In one embodiment, a salespersonrequests information about residents of a house. If the data is notcurrently in the database, database server 80 may contact external datavendor 99 through external request connector 98 to populate the databasewith relevant information. The database server 80 may then send theinformation back to the salesperson through salesperson connector 90.Similarly, the external request connector may request prequalificationfrom the credit bureaus, using information about the confirmed residentsof a home. The resident's data may have been previously retrieved basedon the address of a house selected by the salesperson.

While server 80 has been shown to be a single machine, it should berecognized that components of the software may run on separate machinesor in a cluster or cloud setup. In one embodiment, the databases arehosted on a server that is separated from the connectors, such that theconnector server serves as an intermediary between the database host andoutside communications.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a sales process 100 using the sales managementtool 10 is shown. In one embodiment, the salesperson enters neighborhood102 at the beginning of her route. She inputs the first house number andstreet 104 and sends the input to the central service. The salespersonthen receives house data 106 from the central service. The salesperson'sdevice may then switch to a survey mode in which pre-visit inspectiondata may be entered 108. After having reviewed the house data, thesalesperson may now custom tailor the sales approach using house data110. The salesperson will then decide whether to continue the sale basedon if the customer accepts the services or product 112. Part of thataccepting services or product may include a pre-qualification.

If the customer accepts the sale, the salesperson proceeds withfinalizing the sale. The salesperson may input more service data 114,and verify current information. This information may include paymentinformation, contract information, special offers/discounts, and otherinformation that may be required, helpful or tangential to the sale orpartners. The service data and inspection data may then be forwarded tothe central service 116, which may process any payments required orschedule any appointments. Based on the response received 118, thesalesperson may follow up with any additional product or service offersreceived in the response 120. The salesperson may then choose whether tomove to the next house 124 and input a house number 104 or end her salesprocess in the neighborhood 126.

Otherwise, if the customer does not accept the sale 122, the salespersonwill send the inspection data and result of the sales call to thecentral database 122. The salesperson may then choose to move to thenext house 124 and input the house number 104 or end her sales processin the neighborhood 126.

This embodiment has the advantage of sending field verified data to thecentral service 116. The data may be trusted because it was input whenfreshly in the mind of the sales person. The sales person has anincentive to provide the fresh data because she knows that her managermay monitor the times between submitting the data (avoiding fraudulentlycreated paper reports done well after the alleged sales attempt). She isfurther incentivized because any leads generated by her report may earnher money.

Turning now to FIG. 5, an alternate embodiment of a sales process 130 isshown. It will be appreciated that some steps may be accomplished in adifferent order or in parallel. In such embodiments, an inspection mayoccur after the customer has decided to accept or reject the offeredservices in 132 or 134.

Turning now to FIG. 6, a flowchart of third embodiment of a salesprocess using a sales management tool is shown. The user may begin bychoosing to login 200. Once logged in, the mobile device may give acurrent geolocation to the server and receive updated neighborhood dataabout the surrounding area 210. The user may examine the neighborhooddata displayed and look for highlighted predicted successes 220. Theuser may then tap on the home on the map displayed on the mobile deviceto select the home for approach 230. A server request may be generatedfor the information relating to the home selected. The mobile device mayreceive the house data and supporting data 240 to aid the salesperson intheir approach 245. The customer may then indicate a level of interestin the product by whether they accept an invitation 250 to continue withthe sales process.

If the customer chooses to not continue with the sales process, thegathered information is sent to a central database 260. This gatheredinformation may include the reasons for rejection (i.e. price is toohigh, potential customer already owns the product, potential customerdoes not use the product, etc.), a site survey of the house (includingobserved products), or other information requested through the mobiledevice interface. The sales person may then choose to move to a nexthouse 270. If so, the process may begin again at receiving updatedneighborhood data 210. If not, the sales person may exit the process280.

If the customer shows an interest in the sale, the salesperson may usethe home data requested earlier to pre-qualify the customer 290. If thepre-qualifying 300 fails, the salesperson may end the sales call and thedata may be automatically uploaded by the mobile device in the case of afailure (or it may be manual, with an opportunity to give moreinformation in a site survey) and the inspection information sent to thecentral database 260.

If the pre-qualification is successful, the sales person may tailor thesale to the customer to close the sale 310 and send relevant data, suchas closing data, inspection data and financial data 315. In oneembodiment, the system may be used in a security system sales context.The sales person may conduct a site survey and suggest varioustechnologies to install, such as motion detectors, keypads, floodsensors and other useful add-ons. After the customer and sales personagree, the closing may include a deposit put on a credit card. Theclosing data, inspection and financial data may be sent to the systemserver for processing. The mobile device may then receive a response320, such as a confirmation or request for further information ifneeded. If there are other suggested products or partnerships, themobile device may present the offers for the salesperson to offer to thecustomer 330. The salesperson may then decide whether to move to thenext house 270.

While many transmissions have been discussed by the use of a mobiledevice, it should be recognized that the transmissions may be made on orwith various channels, mediums and/or protocols. The transmissions maybe encrypted, wired or wireless, internet based, satellite based,authenticated, through public or private networks, using TCP/IP, UDP orOS1 or through other methods of communication.

Turning now to FIG. 7, a flowchart of an embodiment of the managementsubsystem 140 is shown. The management subsystem may include portions tomanage employees, profitability and resources. The manger may login tothe management subsystem 142 and then select a desired action 144. Oneof the distinct advantages of this system may be that the informationwithin the database has, been field verified by salespeople with aninterest in correct information. Subtrends, such as people home/nothome, are distinctly more trustworthy from a salesperson marking thedata immediately at the home than from a salesperson marking at the endof the street—or worse—at the end of the day, or some longer period.

The management subsystem may include actions to manage employees. In oneembodiment, the manager may select to review the employee currentemployee status 148. As the central service will know the times thesalesperson requested house data, the manager may review data thatincludes the current status of the employee, the number of housesvisited, the success rate and even when the last house data wasrequested. The data may show recent activity 149 or discrepanciessignaling a problem, including as a salesperson has not recentlyrequested house data. While in safer neighborhoods, this extended timemay be evidence of a salesperson on an extended break, in more dangerousneighborhoods it may alert the sales manager to a potentially dangeroussituation. Therefore the sales manager may contact the salesperson 150and resolve any problems encountered.

In one embodiment, the manager may select an employee effectivenessreport 146. The report may use field verified data from the centralservice to give a more accurate picture of performance thanprofitability alone. For instance, if a salesperson's results status isshowing many residents that were home but did not accept the services orproduct offering, sales training and help may be in order. However, if asalesperson was sent to a neighborhood with few people home, thesalesperson may simply need a better territory. Similarly, more granularresults may be useful as well. If the salesperson shows a lot of peoplehome and a significant time between retrieving the house data andsending the failed sales result and inspection data, the salesperson mayneed training in closing the sales deal—as the sales person's approachis likely ineffective.

The profitability of the territory, neighborhood and sales people may bereviewed. In one embodiment, the manager selects to review neighborhoodprofitability. Significant sales within a neighborhood as evidencedagainst the number of people home may suggest a profitable trend toexploit. For instance, recent events, such as burglaries or other crimeswithin a neighborhood may cause more people to willing to purchase asecurity system or insurance. However, if the neighborhood contains manyworking couples, that trend may go unnoticed. Therefore field verifieddata may be very useful to spot these trends. Normal sales data withsales per neighborhood may miss such a valuable insight available withfield verified data.

One of the valuable insights may come from the manager selecting toreview the referrals 152. In one embodiment, the manager can review thereferrals generated and their profitability. The manager may then informthe sales people of the opportunity presented by the verified data andthe corresponding returns. As the sales people are likely to make moremoney with the sales opportunity, the sales force may be happier aswell.

In another embodiment, the manager may manage the data stored in thereferral database. The manager may collect a list of residents that havea specific need based on the verified data. Once the data reaches acritical mass, it may be sold or given to a partner in exchange forvalue.

Another valuable insight that comes with the field verified data is thata plot of unvisited homes 154 may be very accurate. Further, the fieldverified data may include attempted times and dates of sales visits.With this data, the system may create an estimate of the number ofpeople home at a selected time on a selected day. The model may alsoinclude a recency factor, to revisit homes after a certain delay. Homesmay also be included that requested that a salesperson visit anothertime, or after a delay, which may be frequently overlooked with paperdata tracking methods.

By leveraging this data, the software in conjunction with the managermay plot neighborhood routes 156. Using the verified data, these routesmay be adjusted based on predicted profitability, number of houses tovisit, estimated difficulty of sale or other metric that may be derivedfrom the verified data and other data available.

Many of the actions and reports may also be configured to give liveupdates to the sales manager or other person with a need for theinformation. Such immediate information may be communicated in email,text messages or other forms of communication. In one embodiment, a textmessage will be generated if the employee does not request house datawithin a certain period of time. This also may be adjusted according tothe last request received by the central service. A salesperson that hasfinished an inspection, but has not request new house data, may have ashorter timeout than a salesperson who has requested the house data andis likely in a sales situation.

While a more generic embodiment is shown in FIG. 7, it should berealized that there may be several layers to the management subsystem.In another embodiment, the management subsystem may be split into asales manager management subsystem, a referral management subsystem andan overall management subsystem. The sales manager subsystem may givereport and route information to the sales manager for her area, butrestrict the sales manager from partner and profitability statistics.The referral management subsystem may restrict the referral manager fromroute and salesperson information, but give access to partner data andstatistics. The overall management system may give all access, but alsoinclude reports about each individual sales manager and assessprofitability of each of the partnerships and/or offers.

Turning now to FIG. 8, a flowchart of the database enrichment subsystemis shown. In one embodiment, the system has at least two purposes: todeliver data to sales people for better sales approaches and to enrichthe database with field verified data. As any data retrieved is likelyto be enriched by a response, the more the database is used, the morevaluable it becomes.

In one embodiment, the process begins with the database(s) being created160. After creation, the system may wait for requests or results fromsales people 162. When a message is received in 164, the message must beidentified as results from sales 166 or a request from sales 168. Onceidentified, the system may begin to process the message appropriately.

In the case of a request from sales 168, the sales person would like toquery the database about a residence. The system may receive the requestfrom sales 170, parse the message and store appropriate data. If therequested data is in the database 172, the system may simply retrievethe data from the database 174. If not, then the system may request thedata from an external provider 176 or even multiple providers. This newdata is then stored in the database 178. After the data is retrieved byeither method, the data is sent to the salesperson 180 and the systemwaits for another request 162.

In the case of results from sales 166, the salesperson may be returningdata related to the house data requested earlier. The system may receivethe results from sales 182, parse the message and store appropriatedata. In one embodiment, this includes if there was a successful sale184, updating the sales database 186 with that information. Then if themessage contains a referral 188, updating the referral database 190. Andif the message contains an inspection 192, then updating the leadgeneration database 194. Finally, any field data gathered is flagged asverified 196.

Data about the request or results message may be stored as well. In oneembodiment, the time difference between the request for informationabout a house and the results may correlate with the effectiveness of asalesperson. Similarly, storing times and dates of residents found athome may correlate with the best times to visit the neighborhood. Thus,effective field verified data may include more than just sales andreferrals.

While some events in the description of figures may seem to besequential or tailored to a single request, it should be recognized thatboth the processing of a request step and the processing of multiplerequests may be done in parallel. For instance in FIG. 8, data may besimultaneously requested from an external provider in 176, while resultsfrom the database may be retrieved in 174. The results may be comparedand differences flagged.

In FIGS. 9 to 32, an exemplary embodiment is shown through the use ofscreenshots and a description of the process. It should be recognizedthat the process may implemented in other ways and not limited to theembodiment described. For instance, the specific embodiment of themobile device shown is an iPhone by Apple with an application calledDataReef.

Upon arriving in a neighborhood, a user may activate the system on theirmobile device. In FIG. 9, the user activates the application and logsin. More specifically, the user may enter the account owner 400, username 410, password 420 and server name 430 to log in 440.

Once successfully logged in, the user may be presented with neighborhoodscreen 450 as shown in FIG. 10. Using a location device, such as GPS,the mobile device may identify and display the current location 460 ofthe sales person on a map. The map may also identify individual homes,such as by a push-pin 470. Homes with special relevance may behighlighted. Here, the homes identified by the sales engine throughpredictive analysis as high potential are highlighted with a star 480.Prior sales are identified by a green highlight 490. Homes registered bya prior sales call as “not interested” are highlighted red 500. Priorsales calls that registered the home as “not home” may be gray 510.Other potential information may also be highlighted, such as currentaccounts, potential danger, or other information, including thoserelated to safety, profitability, past history or difficulty of sale.The salesperson may also choose to access other portions of the tool,such as a territories report 520, the street sheet layout 530, refocuson the current location 540, switch to reporting 550, select otheroptions 560 or request a refresh of the current information 570.

If the salesperson desires, the salesperson may choose to view the listof homes on a street sheet 580, such as in FIG. 11. The street sheet mayinclude house addresses 590 associated with homeowner names 600retrieved from public or private databases. Each home database entry maybe further enriched with data from the sales system, such as an icon 610indicating the last status of contact. In the current screenshot, therewas no last status of contact for the homes listed. The street sheet mayinclude further features for ease of use. A salesperson may limit thelistings to even 620 or odd 630 house numbers, because the sales personmay only want to walk on one side of the street. The home listings mayalso be grouped by street 640. The tool may also provide methods to linkto other portions of the tool as more fully described above.

In some embodiments, the sales person is only allowed to view the homeswithin their assigned territory. Thus, homes not within the salesperson's territory may be hidden from view, including the street sheetand the map view. A sales manager may control this feature from theirsales management interface.

If the sales person approaches a home and the sales call results in aperson not interested, the salesperson may mark the home as notinterested along with a reason code. FIG. 12 shows a screenshot of anoutcome coding screen 650 that shows the current outcome 655 andincludes a reason code 660 and a relevant survey 670. In this case, thesalesperson is surveyed on whether the home displays a security sign.

The system may then return to the neighborhood listings, such as thestreet sheet shown in FIG. 13. The home status icon 610 may be updatedto display the current states of the neighborhood homes. Here, the topaddress was updated to not interested with a reason 680 of the fact theowner had a dog or gun.

However, if the sales call approach is not immediately dismissed, thesalesperson may request useful supporting information. In FIG. 14, thesalesperson may retrieve nearby current accounts 690 as references as acurrent accounts list screen 680. In the event that a sales personrepresents a company who has existing or former customers in the nearvicinity of where the sales person is currently working, it may behelpful to the sales person to know information about the nearbyaccounts, such as names 700, distance 710 and number of months 720 as acustomer. The sales person may use their names for reference andcreditability. If needed, the accounts may also be listed on a mapscreen 725 to gauge the proximity to the current sales opportunity, suchas highlighted account pins 730 in FIG. 15.

If needed, the salesperson may call up an information screen 740 on theexpected residents of the home, such as in FIG. 16. This screen may begathered from a mix of public and private databases. For instance, thehome address information may be used to identify the residents 750, andthen the residents names 760 may be used to look up information aboutthem personally 780. This information may also include information thathelps the sales person close the sale. In some cases, the importantinformation may be highlighted, such as reports of recent crimes in thearea or that house specifically. In other cases, the information may bepresent, such as the build date of the house 790 or expected phonenumber 800. If needed, the Salesperson may take notes or request furtherreports 810. These reports 810 may require an extra request because thereport costs money.

For example, if the salesperson decides that the current salesopportunity is promising, the salesperson may request apre-qualification of at least one of the residents. Using theinformation retrieved previously about the expected residents, thesalesperson may select a resident 820 from the resident selection screen830 shown in FIG. 17 and automatically include the currently knowninformation 840 into the pre-qualification screen 850 shown in FIG. 18.If changes are required, the salesperson may select individual items tocorrect. Sensitive information may be hidden or restricted from thesales people, including social security numbers 860. However, in theevent of a request failure, the salesperson may be permitted to enternew information, without access to the original information. Similarly,cost attribution information 870 or other accounting information may beentered. Otherwise, the salesperson may select the pre-qualificationbutton 880 to run the pre-qualification.

The system may include checks and verifications to enforce compliancewith policy or law. In some cases, it may be useful to restrict asalesperson from closing a sale. In some cases it is useful to restrictsalespeople who are not licensed in the state from completing a sale. InFIG. 19, the compliance screen 890 is a method to restrict thepre-qualification ability to people with state licenses. A pop-up 900 isshown with an explanation relating to the noncompliance reason. In thiscase, if the pre-qualification screen cannot be run, the sale cannot becompleted. The unlicensed salesperson would have to request a licensedperson to complete the sale.

Once the resident has passed pre-qualification, the salesperson may workout the terms of the sale, such as seen in the terms of sale screen 910in FIG. 20. This may include activation fees 920, installation fees 930,terms 940, upgrades 950, points 960, contract length 970, monitoringfees 980, immediate dispatch 990, installation date scheduling 1000,installation time scheduling 1010 or other important data. Oncecomplete, the salesperson may also arrange to take payment 1020 for anydeposit or fees owing, by inputting the information in the mobiledevice. In some cases, the payment may be immediately processed.

FIGS. 21 to 24 show different methods of imputing and restricting inputto the terms of sale. For example, the payment screen 1030 payment typesmay be restricted to specific cards, credit cards or EFT, as shown inFIG. 21. Similarly, the activation fee screen 1040 may be restricted toauthorized activation fee levels, as shown in FIG. 22. However, a moregeneric input may be desired for other input, such as in the pointsscreen 1050 for points, in the case of alarm installation sales, asshown in FIG. 23. Similarly, FIG. 24, shows a notes screen 1060 withgeneric input for notes on the sales opportunity.

Once, complete, the salesperson may return to the neighborhood listing,as shown in FIG. 25. Here, the updated street sheet 1060 has beenupdated with the sales person's activity. The first home 1070 remainsmarked as not interested with a reason of a dog or gun. The second home1080 was marked as not home and the recently completed sale 1090 wasmarked as well.

The system may also contain logic to prevent salespeople from performingunauthorized action. For instance, if the sales person tries to requestfor information on a current customer, the system may show an errormessage pop-up 1100 such as in FIG. 26. Similar restrictions may applyfor other homes or information. For instance, the system may preventcontact with people who declared they were not interested for a periodof time, such as one year. It may also prevent contact with people knownto be under contract with another company until the contract is up. Thesystem may also provide safety warnings, such as entering a dangerousneighborhood or attempting a sales call on a previously marked violentor threatening homeowner.

The system may also allow the salesperson to search and/or scrollthrough homes and/or owner names. FIG. 27 shows a screenshot of a houseid map screen 1110 marking a currently identified home 1120 with anaddress listing 1130 and homeowner name 1140.

The system may also allow the salesperson or sales manager to runreports and/or receive reports on their mobile device. As seen FIG. 28,a breakout report 1150 may contain information on the total number ofdoors attempted 1160, the number of people who answered 1170, the numberof people passing pre-qualification 1180, the passing rate forpre-qualification 1190, the number of sales 1200, the number of credits1210, the number of credits per sale 1220, the number of credits thatpass 1230, the passage rate of credits 1240, the rate of closing ingross 1250 and net 1260, and rate of closing for those that pre-qualify1270. These statistics may be adjusted by various ranges, includingdate, time of day, day of week, salesperson, group of sales people,neighborhood, proximity to event (such as recent crime) or other ranges.

Various sub-reports may be selected and viewed as well. FIG. 29 shows asummary statistics screen 1280 for a sales manager's variousterritories, which may drill down into further sub-reports 1290. Forexample, a sub-report selection screen 1300 may include a report basedon house status 1310 as seen in FIG. 30. A sales manager may review agraphing screen 1320 of the more common “not interested” status reasons1330 as shown in FIG. 31 and arrange training to overcome the reasons.The reports may contain various granularity and summary screens. Forinstance, a sales manager or sales person may browse the sales by date.In FIG. 32, a sales person may browse their sales history by date in asales browsing screen 1340. Each date 1350 shows a summary statistics1360 for that day along with a sales icon 1370 identifying days withsales.

It should be recognized that screens and reports may be linked. Forinstance, in FIG. 32, the statistics are summarized for each date.However, a sales person or manager may select the arrow 1380 to drilldown further into the report and see more granular results.

There is thus disclosed an improved sales management tool and associatedmethods of use. It will be appreciated that numerous changes may be madeto the present invention without departing from the scope as defined bythe claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A sales management tool, comprising: a databasecontaining data; a mobile device configured to request data from thedatabase regarding a potential sale and further configured to sendresults back to the database; and a server configured to flag theresults as verified.
 2. The sales management tool according to claim 1,wherein the mobile device displays a plurality of pieces of informationregarding one or more persons residing at particular property selectedfrom the group consisting of, name, address, previous contact history,and prequalification.
 3. The sales management tool according to claim 1,wherein the mobile device displays screens for a plurality of pieces ofinformation regarding attempts by a salesperson to sell product at aparticular property from the group consisting of the resident's interestin the product, whether there is evidence of agreements with competingcompanies, whether the resident is hostile or does not want to becontacted in the future, whether the resident has need of the productbeing sold, and whether the resident has need of other products.
 4. Thesales management tool according to claim 1, wherein the mobile devicegraphically identifies homes which should not be approached.
 5. Thesales management tool according to claim 1, wherein the mobile devicegraphically displays homes which have purchased the product or productsbeing sold.
 6. The sales management tool according to claim 1, whereinthe mobile device displays a message if a resident of a location is notqualified to purchase the product.
 7. A sales management tool,comprising: a database containing neighborhood data, the neighborhooddata containing information about expected occupants at addresses withinthe neighborhood; a mobile device configured to send a current position,and receive a list of expected occupants at addresses near the currentposition; and a server configured to prepare a pre-qualification checkfor one of the homes using the expected occupants information retrievedfrom the address.
 8. A sales management process, comprising: requestinginformation about a potential sale from a database while near the siteof the sale; surveying the sales site for referral information; sendingthe results of the survey back to the database; and flagging the surveyresults as verified.
 9. The sales management process according to claim8, wherein the process further comprises obtaining information regardingprior contact history of a resident of an intended sales location from aremote source.
 10. The sales management process according to claim 8,wherein the process further comprises obtaining information regardingcontractual obligations of a resident of an intended sales location froma remote source.
 11. The sales management process according to claim 8,wherein the process further comprises obtaining information whether aresident at an intended sales location his financially qualified topurchase a product.
 12. The sales management process according to claim8, wherein the process further comprises entering information regardingwhether the resident was interested in purchasing a product.
 13. Thesales management process according to claim 12, wherein the processfurther comprises identifying why the resident was not interested inpurchasing the product.
 14. A sales management process, comprising:sending a current position to a server; receiving a list of addressesand expected occupants from the server based on the current position;requesting a credit check on an address constructed from the expectedoccupant data; and receiving the results of the credit check.
 15. Asales management process, comprising: sending a current position of asalesperson to a server; receiving a list of addresses and expectedoccupants from the server based on the current position; enhancing thedata with a status associated with each address; receiving an update tothe status associated with an address after a status change hasoccurred; and sending an update to the status associated with an addressafter a status change has occurred by the salesperson.
 16. A salesmanagement process, comprising: inputting a house number into mobiledevice; using the house number in a request to a server; returning datato the mobile device about the house; restricting the mobile device frommore data until a survey is complete; sending results of the survey to aserver; unrestricting the mobile device once the results of the surveyhave been sent; and marking the results of the survey as verified.
 17. Asales management process, comprising: requiring a plurality of salesagents to survey a plurality of sales sites in the vicinity of salesattempts; marking the survey data as verified; and plotting sales routesbased on the survey data.